The online variant of many card games as offered in a casino (for example, poker, blackjack, keno or the like) provides significantly different challenges to the detection of cheating on the part of the dealer than traditional table games. For example, in the online environment, there is obviously a lack of physical contact between the players and the dealer. Indeed, maintaining secure, fair games in online gaming is a difficult and complicated issue for online gaming firms. Although there are many ways to unfairly play the games, one on-going problem is the suspicion on the part of the players that the card deck may be manipulated by the computer system that creates the “electronic deck” and deals the cards.
With the availability of online gambling, issues regarding the integrity of the “electronic dealer” are problem areas that gate the expansion of this industry. That is, there is a suspicion by some players that a computer-controlled system can control the deal of the cards and, therefore, is not “playing fair”. Indeed, if a site is involved in using real money to stage a poker game, it is relatively easy for an actual “human” player to be contracted to play for the company controlling the online computer system and be given an advantage. For instance, a deck may be manipulated by a computer-controlled dealer such that a priori certain winning cards will be dealt to the contract player (i.e., the “shill” that is working for the company). If the advantage is not blatant, and is not over-used, it is possible for a rigged gaming site to carry on for an extended period of time.